Winter Of My Jewish Girl
by Sables Fables
Summary: Summer of My German Soldier When a German POW is recaptured and brought in for questioning, his connection with a jewish girl comes under investigation. Can truth be found using the lie of his death? Continuance of Bette Greene's Series. Anton x PB.
1. Introduction

I'd just like to start out by saying that I do not own any part of Bette Greene's property. "Summer of my German Solider" and "Morning is a Long Time Coming" belong solely to her as far as my understanding goes. I wrote this because it was their story that begged me to be written.

Now, if you are like me and absolutely loved the characters of Anton Reiker and Patty Bergen, then by all means, read on. I do like constructive criticism. If you don't like it, tell me why. If you do like it, well, it will only feed my ego if you don't tell me why you like it. I hope you all enjoy.

Rating may change in further chapters. I don't know yet, but I want to stick to the same basic pattern that Bette Greene used when originally writing.


	2. Chapter 1

Pain drug me out of the warm darkness that had taken me with such strength. I couldn't focus on anything. There were yellow lights that spun around my head and all of the colors swirled in my vision.

"Doctor, he's waking up." It had been a woman's voice. Quiet, but firm.

"Sedate him nurse." The man's voice was cold. Unemotional. I could feel the fear stir in my stomach as I struggled to recall the last thing that had happened. The thundering of a train scratched at the edge of my memory but I felt a prick on my arm and the pain that had woken me, move further back into my mind. Almost disappearing. Like there had been a wall built between us. The thundering of a train faded, wrapped in a thick blanked of darkness. The color in my vision deepened until I couldn't fight the urge to sleep any longer. It was warm and comforting and the fear that I had felt dripped away from me.


	3. Chapter 2

I opened my eyes on this strange bed. I would have believed that I may have gone blind if there hadn't been a thin strip of light coming through what seemed to be the door. It was very quiet now. No beeping of machines. No tubes attached to anything hissing at me. There were footsteps. They were far away. I wiggled my fingers and toes, not sure if everything worked properly. There wasn't any pain in my head anymore so I thought attempting to sit up wouldn't be a horrible idea. I slowly lowered my legs to the floor and hoisted my body into a sitting position.

What little light I did have swirled in my vision and turned my stomach inside out. I landed on the floor on my hands and knees as my body tried to purge itself. Had this been from the drugs they had pumped into me to keep me "sedated"? Apparently, in my drugged stupor, I hadn't ingested anything either, turning what my body was trying to do, into painful dry-heaves.

The convulsions slowed and I was finally able to catch my breath. What I wouldn't have done for a glass of water. I slowly moved back onto the bed and stayed in the sitting position. I had already made it this far, why turn back now? My hands were icy but they felt good on my burning face. I was shaking slightly now. It must have been my lack of food and the amount of drugs they had put in me. I tried to just keep breathing deeply and slowly so my body could have a moment to try and readjust.

Then I noticed the footsteps again. They had gotten louder. Someone was going to walk in front of the room. Then light flooded my small dark room and I tried to see who had come through the door. It looked like a woman in some sort of nurses uniform. She started to walk in normally but then stopped short when she saw me sitting upright.

I tried to speak but nothing came out. My throat was too dry.

She quickly shut the door again and I heard her hurried footsteps move away from me. I almost laughed. Why didn't they let me die on the train tracks? The memories came flooding back to me now. I had managed to grab hold of the rails of one of the train cars. That's when I heard the first shot. Then I started to panic. The second came shortly after the first and wood splintered off of the panel to my right. I had struggled to try to open the door to the car when I heard the third shot. Pain had ripped through me so fast that I hadn't even realized that I had lost my grip on the handle until I hit the ground along the train tracks. I had been so sure that the bullet had gone through my heart. It had pierced my lung and I could feel it filling up with blood. I did see a couple of men in uniforms running toward me before I blacked out.

If they were trying to kill me then, why save me and then leave me in a room to die? Then the footsteps were back. Heavier. More of them. Not as hurried. The door reopened and this man looked like he might be the doctor. There were two other men behind him holding guns. And the woman was there too. Behind the doctor and to his right.

The doctor reached over to his left and hit a switch that made a hanging light high above me on the tall ceiling turn on, "Good afternoon Mr. Reiker. You're quite lucky that you're still alive. You've been touch and go for the last two weeks. I'd like to check your lungs for any drainage if you don't mind."

I shook my head slowly and slightly, worried that I would be sent spinning again. He placed a stethoscope in his ears and against the tender side of my ribs. "Breathe in as deep as you can." I did. I had a slight urge to cough but suppressed it. The doctor listened to a few spots on my chest before he took the earpieces out, "It seems to be healing well." He turned back to the two men that had accompanied him, "But I don't want to much strain at first. Hold your questioning for a couple of days. He needs to get his strength back."

The men nodded at him. The woman came into the room carrying a tray of what looked like standard hospital food. She set the tray on a light weight table.

"Can you eat Mr. Reiker? I'd like to get some nutrition into you in the old-fashioned way. We just took you off the tubes last night. I figured you would be waking up soon."

I looked at the food on the tray and tried to feel hungry, "May I start with something to drink and we can go from there?" My voice was so dry and so weak, I surprised myself. The nurse handed me the glass of room temperature water. It felt like heaven. They slid the small table closer to my bed so I could reach it if I wanted to.

"I'd like to see what a little bit of exercise does for you. I will return in the morning to take a little stroll around the courtyard."

I picked up a piece of a roll that was sitting on my tray and tried to pick at it. "You should get a bit more rest. Please eat what you can and get some rest."

"I'm not sure if I can sleep anymore."

The doctor nodded and stepped just outside of the room and fussed with something just out of my sight. He came back in carrying another glass of what I assumed was water while he stirred something into it, "Here. This should help you rest. Drink the whole thing." He set it down on the table. I nodded my head. "I'll be back to check on you in the morning." They all filed out of my room. I heard the door locked behind them.

I tried to eat what I could. I managed to eat about half of what was there. I watched the glass that had yet another drug in it. I wasn't sure that I wanted anything else in me. I leaned back on the bed and I had no dizziness this time. Maybe all I did need was some food in my stomach. I did feel better but I still didn't feel tired. I touched where the bullet punched through my chest. I half expected to find a bullet hole but it was solid fabric. The texture was a lot thicker than the shirt that PB had given me. One that had been her fathers. It had his name on it.

I began to panic. Would they have been able to link Patty with me? Had I just betrayed the one friend that I had in this cage? I felt my stomach begin to turn again and I tried to calm myself down. I needed to slow down. I couldn't give them any information that they didn't already have and if I panicked, then I was more likely to do just that.

It sounded like I had a couple of days to try and think of a reason that PB would be helping me that wouldn't have caused her any trouble. I still didn't feel tired but I didn't want to think anymore. I turned my head and looked at the glass with the sleeping aid in it. I drank it slowly, letting the liquid run over my chapped and dry lips and cool my dry throat. If I could get my mind to slow down, maybe I could think of a reason that I would be in possession of that shirt and not involve Patty at all.


	4. Chapter 3

They opened the door to deliver food but left me in the dark for the rest of it. The doctor came in once at the end of the second day to check my improvement. In his eyes I was satisfactory. I still felt like death warmed over.

The lights made my eyes burn. They had wheeled an old wheel chair into my room that groaned and cried out in it's duty, promising a preamble to a thorough beating. I tried to still my heart as they strapped me into the contraption. They must have been afraid that I was going to try and make a break for it. I almost laughed to myself at the thought. A laugh that made my sides threaten to heave again. Knowing what my last escape had caused; the damage it could still be doing--. I just needed to stay calm. Everything would be alright if I just stayed calm.

The walls were gray. The only color came from the yellowish bulbs that hung high above my head. If I hadn't been locked in a windowless room for two days, these dull bulbs wouldn't have bothered me. Now they seemed as bright as the sun but my eyes seemed to be adjusting. Gradually.

The security guard stopped me in front of a dark brown door. More plain colors. I imagined the color of Patty's tear filled eyes. The crystal brown that pulled me in. Those eyes that had convinced me that her age had extended so far beyond those twelve years of her life. Those same eyes that condemned me to leave her side. She could have never guessed how I felt for her. That caring innocents that had intwined my heart. I would have given my life for her. I would have torn apart her father if it hadn't been for those same eyes, begging me not to. The torture I would have caused her if her father had found us out. Had found me hiding, that was the worst thing in the world for her. The love of a child. It was only a child's fairy-tale on her end. She couldn't have understood the depths of love. Not like I felt for her. But it was so wrong. I am a grown man. It was sick to feel love like that towards a child. God would surely send me to hell. Maybe someday we could make our peace. Maybe that was why I lived through this. Maybe.

The door opened to another dark room. The light in this one was lower. Hanging over the table like death hovers over the soldiers on the battlefield. There was a man sitting just outside it's pool of sickly yellow light. It looked like he was wearing a suit. My judge and jury.

They wheeled me up to the table. This chair had done it many times. It fit snugly under the worn planks of wood on the table.

"Frederick Anton Reiker."

I rolled my head up slightly to look at my death that sat across from me. A very lean man looked at me with ice cold eyes, the pale blue shocking in the dull colorless surroundings. He had a mustache that sat neatly on his upper lip. His lips were thin and tight. He was mad. There was a rage that bubbled just beneath his skin. I let my head drift back down to stare at my lap.

"Yes sir." I would show my obedience. Maybe then they will believe my lies. Another thing that I'll have to make up to you Lord. But these lies are necessary.

"Lets get right down to it. You had taken shelter with the Bergen family, is that correct?" I could feel the man's cold eyes burning into me but I didn't lift my eyes.

"That is true, but not welcomely."

There was a pause for a slight moment as the digested my words, "Explain."

"I had found the hiding space after my escape and hidden there for two days before the girl found me. She was terrified of me," I imagined how PB's face would have been if it had happened this way and it made me sick. I pushed the images away before my body tried to heave again, "I used that fear so that she would bring me food and not tell anyone I was there."

"How is it that you came into possession of this shirt with the name Harry Bergen embroidered onto it?"

A gift, "A demand that I made. I knew that I needed new cloths to try and run again. Honestly, it made me sick to scare her like that."

I could see the skin tighten on the back of his hand as his hand clenched into a fist on the table, "I will not tolerate your lies. This is your only warning." I was silent because I had no idea what to say. That had been the only truth. To put fear in those perfect brown eyes... I couldn't stand it.

He questioned me for hours before the doctor came in and stopped him. Lt. Paterson, which I came to learn was his name, had questioned me on everything from being a spy to physically abusing PB. I let him break me down to tears. The stress was too much for me to handle in there, being strapped to the chair for so long. They slid silently down my cheeks. The doctor came in a while after that and took me from the room. My whole body sagged in the chair as he wheeled me back to my dark room. I had started to welcome the darkness.

Lt. Paterson had wanted me to confess to so much but the truth had been that I had only been a simple soldier when I had been captured. I had become a soldier a lot later then many of my countrymen. I had given him as much information as I had known so that he would believe me and leave PB alone. I didn't know how much good it would do him but I wanted this war finished.

The nurse from the first night followed the security guard into my room and she help to undo my straps. I struggled to get up. The security guard ignored my struggle and the nurse stepped to my side and gripped my upper arm to help me. I stumbled slightly and she steadied me. I looked her in the eyes and bowed my head slightly, "Thank you."

She was a fair girl. Not much older than I. Her blue eyes stood out against her pale skin. She blushed slightly and it added pleasant color to her face and lips. She nodded her head but said nothing. After I was moved to my bed and sitting, she brought my food tray and left me to eat it in the dim room.


	5. Chapter 4

When, again, I sat at the same table, in the same chair as I had, 10 or so times this week alone, the hatred that my inquisitors held for me seemed to dissipate as the week went on. They only allowed me maybe an hour or two of sleep before they strapped me back into the chair and wheeled me into the same gray room with the intrusive yellow light. I honestly gave them any detail that I could remember. Any rooms that I had been in; any groups of men that I had served time with.

On this sixth day, they brought me into the room and there stood a pale figure in a dark cloak. He stood silently watching me with yellow cat like eyes. When the other men didn't acknowledge him, I watched him for a moment. Lt. Paterson looked over his shoulder towards him but those yellow eyes stayed on me. Lt. Paterson said nothing and continued with his questioning. It took me a little bit to realize that the other men in the room were either ignoring him or, and this was the realization that scared me, I was the only one that could see him.

Lt. Paterson sighed after questioning me for a while and he looked up at the guard, "Andrew, could you leave us alone for a few minutes?" The guard nodded and let himself out of the room. Lt. Paterson took his glasses off and set them on the table, rubbing the indent they had created on the bridge of his nose. I saw the dark circles under his eyes and they made me wonder if he had been getting any more sleep then I had.

"Mr. Reiker, I need to understand something."

I shifted my eyes from the figure to Lt. Paterson.

"You and the girl. You had grown quite close."

I dropped my eyes, unable to look him in the eye. My brain didn't function well enough on what little sleep I did have to keep my story coherent.

Lt. Paterson watched me in silence for a moment and sighed.

"She attacked the man that returned her fathers shirt."

Still I said nothing. What could I say?

"Anton, this is just between us now."

I looked up at him and saw honesty in his face. No more anger. No more hatred. I watched his hands slowly rocking his glasses, "The girl did not house a Nazi Lieutenant. She cared for a friend of which she has very few in this world. And I did not see just some girl that was defined by a race. Someone born outside of this 'perfect race' that Hitler speaks of. I saw someone who, despite everyone telling her to hate, found it in herself to be kind and generous to someone who, in all rights, has every reason to despise." I glanced back towards where the figure was standing but he was gone now. There was a shadow on the wall still in his shape but it was nothing more then a play of cast light. I settled my gaze back to the edge of the table in front of me, "And that is the whole truth. All that I know. So don't punish her for her selflessness, or for having a pure heart. For acting in a way no man or woman I know could have."

Lt. Paterson was quiet for a moment and I felt his eyes on me. I had told him everything. I could only pray that God's punishment would only fall on me and not touch PB. He sighed and that caused me to look up, "I think we're done here. I've got no more questions for you and I don't think you have anything left to give. Andrew will take you back to your cell and when you've rested, we'll place you with the other inhabitants."

Paterson stood and knocked twice on the door behind me. He wheeled me around and the door opened with. But something still bothered me. What had he said about PB? She attacked someone? "Sir?"

Paterson stopped and turned back towards me as Andrew entered the room, "Yes?" His voice was tired now. The anger that had existed when I first came to this dull room was entirely gone now only leaving wariness.

"You said she attacked someone?"

"Yes."

"May I ask why she did?"

He was silent for a moment. Watching me. His eyes dropped first. He turned his head and put his glasses on his face but regret washed over his features for a moment. He drew in a deep breath, "That... remains confidential."

I knew better then to push. Confidential was a word that could not be broken by men in our positions. In our rank. Paterson stepped out of the room and Andrew approached me moving the chair once again into the hall. What had Paterson said though? Think. Remember. Why would she attack. Sweet PB. Caring PB. They opened the door to my cell and there he stood. Same yellow eyes watching me from the far corner of the room. Cat like eyes. Andrew didn't see him. Didn't acknowledge him at least. He was going to leave me in here with him.

The fair skinned nurse came into the room with my food. She unstrapped me and helped me move to the bed. I wasn't as weak as I had been. Just tired. So tired. I glanced at her for a moment, "Thank you... --?" I paused. It had been something like a week and I didn't know her name. One that had shown me a measure of kindness and I hadn't even heard it in passing. Maybe she wanted it that way. Maybe they all needed it that way.

She smiled. A small smile and met my eyes for just a moment, "You're welcome Mr. Reiker. Get some rest."

I nodded and as she left, I looked back to where the figure had stood against the wall. Again. Gone.

"We will be back for you in a few hours. Try to sleep. We will be moving you to new quarters then." The door closed and I laid down without touching my food. I wasn't hungry. I was tired. And if the man with they yellow eyes wanted to take me, then I would go willingly. If God had decided that to be a suitable punishment for loving a child, then I would accept. I was too tired to argue.

I felt a little rested when the opening of the door woke me. Groggy, I remembered the man with the yellow eyes as though it had been a dream. I remembered being strapped to the chair and questioned only in fragments. I still was tired, but I felt a bit more like myself.

The fair skinned nurse entered with Lt. Paterson and I sat up, slowly, trying to show a bit of respect and submission but still feeling a bit disoriented. She brought a food tray and that was when I realized that I was in a different room. It was brighter then what I had been use to for weeks and I saw small windows higher on the walls then windows usually were. The room had white washed walls and looked very plain. It was bigger then my cell had been and looked like it had a hall that led to another room. They hadn't closed the door behind them and it wasn't even a heavy door. I was in a house.

"You don't remember getting moved here, do you?" Paterson asked. The confusion must have been registering on my face pretty clearly. I slowly shook my head, my body still not entirely wanting to respond.

"You were fairly incoherent when we moved you. You've slept for a day and a half. I wanted to let you know what is to be expected of you during your stay here. We moved you to a house on the edge of the camp. You should be comfortable here. There is talk of moving you to an internment camp further North but it's not decided yet."

I was silent. I didn't know what to tell him. I nodded my head showing that I understood that my stay here may not be long. They left me then and I adjusted to my new living quarters. It was quiet here and I ventured outside from time to time. My neighbors were almost purely of Japanese descent. But many of them spoke english more clearly then I could. Children that had grown up in America. Their homeland now imprisoning them. The mood that hung in the air here was quiet and slightly mournful. Many of the inhabitants trying to be optimistic, yet many of them had lost everything when the government rounded them up.

Months passed slowly. When I wasn't able to control it, my mind drifted to Patty. I wondered how she had been doing. If she was healthy. I tried to push her from my mind. Thoughts of her made my heart ache to unbearable limits. Spring came and began to turn things a yellowish shade of green. I saw the fair skinned nurse a few times. She had spoken a few words to me during which I found out her name was Diana. She held an obvious interest in me. Why, I may never be certain. She was kind, although shy. I was sitting outside by the fence that was near the entrance one morning when she exited the heavily secured building that acted as the main gateway in and out of the camp. I watched her for a moment not saying anything as she lit up a cigarette. Upon noticing me, she jumped slightly. I smiled at her and nodded my head, she smiled in return.

Looking down at her pack of cigarettes, she looked up at me again, "Would you like one?"

I smiled. I hadn't really taken up the habit but I didn't want to seem rude, "Thank you."

She pulled one out of the package and lit it, passing it through the fence. I put the cigarette to my lips and proceeded to cough violently on the smoke. She laughed quietly, "It's not very often that you see a man who doesn't smoke."

I laughed with her and kept trying the foul smelling thing. The silence lingered between us for a few moments until she broke it once more, "Their is news of the war. Hitler is dead. Apparently he committed suicide."

I was a bit shocked to say the least. A man so powerful, ending his life on his own accord. Once I was able to find my speech again I was full of questions, "Does that mean the war is over?"

She shrugged, "In Europe, it sounds like it. There is still talk of fighting in Japan."

I was quiet for a moment. There were questions that I wanted to ask her. But how could I? I knew she wouldn't answer them. Or, at the very least, shouldn't. I saw the debate in her eyes. She knew what I wanted to know as well.

"There is debate about sending you back to Germany. You've been so cooperative, they may help you get back home."

I smiled and looked at the ground. Humbled by her kindness in sharing the information. Excitement in returning home made me smile.

I heard her sigh and I looked up at her, her eyes dropping to the ground, "You aren't suppose to know this, but..." her voice broke off in conflict with her own thoughts. I let the silence hang there waiting for her to finish her thought, "I think you have a right to know." She met my inquisitive eyes, "She thinks your dead. Everyone does."

My stomach sank and I felt as though I was going to be sick. I turned in a slow circle trying to regain my balance that suddenly seemed to have escape me.

"She made quite a scene when they confronted her with your death. It told them what they needed to know about you. And about the situation that existed between you two."

Tears burned at my eyes slipping silently down my cheeks. What I wouldn't do to have taken that pain away from her. But I knew that I would never be able to go to her. Never again. But for nothing else, our heritage should have always kept them apart, my love for her demanded that I leave her. The pure evil that it was to feel that kind of love for a child made me hate myself. But to know she was in pain, that she thought I was dead made my chest hurt to the point that I could barely breathe.

"She really did care for you didn't she?" Diana's voice had been quiet and gentle.

Reluctantly, I nodded my head and let the silence settle between us for a moment. I met her gaze. There was sorrow in it, "Why are you telling me this?"

She was quiet for moment and looked at the ground, "Because I think that she cared about you too. I think you're more then just a Nazi German soldier. I think that you were truly her friend." The quiet of the morning again drifted between us settling heavily. Diana seemed uncomfortable for a moment before deciding on her next question, "What will you do... when this is all over?"

I turned the options over in my head. I wouldn't return to her. Not now. I had already made her a traitor to her country. And I wouldn't corrupt her. The love I felt for her could only taint her, "I'll go home. To my Father's home. I hope that my Father and Mother haven't heard of my apparent death."

She had the inner conflict again registering in her eyes, "I would pass a message to her. If you'd like. To the girl." She offered it meekly yet it was the greatest thing she could have offered me. To let Patty know that he was alright. That she didn't need to be sad. But I knew that girl better then that. I knew that she wouldn't give up until she had come to me. And I couldn't trust myself around her, "I appreciate it. More then I can even express. But I've done enough damage to her. I've labeled her a traitor to her country. I caused her to lie to her family. I have to leave her in peace. Let her live her life." My heart was breaking but I knew it would be the best for her."

"I should get back inside. I'm sorry if I upset you..."

She was sorry? I began to panic. I never meant to make her feel like she had anything to be sorry about, "Oh please, don't be sorry. Don't be sorry for anything. You have shown me kindness that I never deserved. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that with me."

She was quiet and looked a bit embarrassed. Smiled at me and nodded her head, "I-- I better get back inside." And with that she moved to the door, opened it, lingering long enough to glance back at me then shut the door behind her.


	6. Chapter 6

I wanted to give a very brief update to everyone who's been reading this. I can't tell you how excited I am about all the comments that I've received on this piece. I've also been asked a lot when I'm going to update and I promise you it is coming! I'm in the process of graduating and it'll only last a few more weeks. Thank you for the enthusiasm! I promise that it is at the top of my list to get to all of you! Please be patient with me.


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